This is Stevea Robbins. Welcome to the Get It Done Guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Sometimes we need to signal what we mean more subtly than just stating our intentions out loud.

When we're negotiating or flirting or trying to set up our work nemesis to take the fall for bad management decision, those are the times.

My local bookstore recently posted an ad for a nighttime negotiation class for adults.

The class cost thousands of dollars, so I called them up and I said, I can't afford that much money.

Give it to me for free.

They said, no.

I said, okay, do you need my credit card or should I send a check?

They said, wow, you really do need to learn negotiating, don't you? And so that deal was struck.

Harvard Law School sure knows how to drive a hard bargain. In the first class, we played a bidding game.

Sealed bidding is an exercise and signaling and tension through the bid price

without the ability to communicate directly what you want.

Just like flirting.

So, let's explore flirting as an analogous situation.

Europa, former pop star and now secret overlord of the entire eastern block is lonely. Oh, yes, she may have

a cybernetic son Thomas, whom she built to keep her company, but that's no substitute for a

schmupy with whom she could do, you know, schmupy things, like going to the opera together.

For the first time in many, many years, Europa is feeling romantic.

She's recently met a prospective schmupy named Sammy.

Sammy is warm, friendly, and a great conversationalist, and in true 21st century style, texts Europa a dozen times a day.

Europa, however, comes running to me on a regular basis.

Yes, we text all the time, but I don't know if Sammy just wants to be friends.

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